CB South and Library District reach agreement

No date set for official DRC review

by Mark Reaman 

The Crested Butte South Property Owner’s Association and the Gunnison County Library District appear to have reached an agreement whereby the Library District can continue earthwork on its site for a new library while going through the POA’s Design Review Committee (DRC) review process. The agreement was struck last weekend and signed Monday. That resulted in not having to go through a scheduled court hearing on Tuesday.

“On Monday, June 8, the Library District and the CBS POA finalized an agreement which canceled the court hearing set for Tuesday, June 9 and put a stay on the filed complaint,” CB South POA manager Derek Harwell said this week in an email. “Key to the agreement is the acknowledgement that the library district as a property owner in CBS is subject to the Covenants and will submit its application for DRC review; as such the POA looks forward to working with the library district in submittal of their plans and application for formal DRC review.”

The agreement states that the property is subject to POA covenants and thus the plans must be submitted for DRC review. That was done Monday morning by the district.

The agreement states that CB South “will use its best efforts to complete the review process on or before June 30, 2026 provided the Library timely participates and cooperates in good faith in the review process.”

It is clear the Library District retains the right to appeal any decision of the DRC. Under the agreement, CB South will not oppose the Library’s efforts to obtain a tap fee and permit from the Crested Butte South Metro District. That entity has agreed to the permit if an agreement between the POA and Library District is fully executed.

The two parties agreed to cancel the June 9 preliminary injunction hearing and hold off on any future progress on that lawsuit for either the next six weeks or the completion of earthwork site preparation on the site, whichever comes first.

The DRC review will be focused on the proposed library building only and not the potential housing portion of the project that is not included under the building permit held by the library district. The district does not yet have funding for the proposed eight units of workforce housing so that has been set aside for the time being.

Harwell said the POA has two full DRC meetings scheduled in June, so no time has yet been set to review the library plans. He said he is exploring every avenue to be able to schedule the review in as timely of a manner as possible.

Library District executive director Drew Brookhart said the settlement offer signed this week is very similar to the one the Library District provided the POA on May 18.

“The Library District’s settlement offer is straightforward. The Library District will provide the library project plans to Crested Butte South’s Design Review Committee. These are the same plans provided to the POA back in early February,” said Brookhart. “The POA provided comments on these same plans back then. The POA comments were delivered to Gunnison County’s Planning Commission and resulted in design changes to the project. The Library District is looking forward to gathering any additional comments the DRC might provide.

“The Library District also provided the project’s Construction Documents or “Permit Set,” so the POA can see the changes that resulted from its comments back in February and March,” Brookhart continued. “The settlement agreement requires the POA to drop any objections to CBSMD issuing permits for the water and sewer tap connections for the project. Most importantly, the agreement also allows the Library District to continue working on the project without the POA interfering. Construction is expensive and any delay would be terribly expensive for Gunnison County taxpayers.”